More VoIP for less money

Since last time I reviewed the Express Talk for Mac software for using VoIP services, I just found 3 more sites offering better deals in calls around the world. In that review I said I was using Freecall, but now you can look at Nonoh, LowRateVoip and 12Voip for great deals.

Any of them can be configured into the Express Talk for Mac, even all of them as the software have configuration for 6 lines.

Hope this info is useful for you.

Videos in the Mac - Miro player

For those who like podcasts or simply seeing and saving videos in their Mac, I would recommend to giva a try to Miro (called before Democracy player). Apart from being translated into various languages, it has versions for Windows, Mac, Linux and others. I like it a lot and it's easy to use.

You can search videos directly from Youtube, and from another services from the web, including Miro Guide of channels.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Then you can see the selected downloads going on.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

The videos are kept in our library (works in same way as iTunes library) and here wwe can select if we keep them saved or if they will be erased in a few days.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

It also has playlists! In my case, I made one with videos of Pocoyo for my little girl.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

And finally, you can see the videos within Miro or in fullscreen (with transparency layer of buttons) For me, it's great.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Wishlist additions

(The truth is that I should be doing another thing instead of writing this post, but that another thing would be easier to do if had one of the apps what I am going to write about).

I have been seeing so much the screencasts of the different functionalities of Mac OS X Leopard, that I know want it so much. The integration of Mail with iCal and with Address Book is interesting, besides other nice things. Cost in euros: €129.

The other thing that right now would serve me a lot. MacSpeech Dictate (or final version of iListen - 1.8) with the Spanish LanguagePak. I have to create a speech of 45 minutes and I don't want to write it all again, for which I would love to be able to dictate it to the Mac. Thus also could help to stop the hand pain of typing. After writing 150 pages for a thesis, one gets tired. But in short, the date of release of Dictate according to the site was 15 of February, but only for the ones that upgraded to iListen 1.8 and registered.
Price of iListen1.7 + Audio/Microphone Plantronics in the Store Apple UK: £130.
Price of iListen1.7 in the Store Apple US: $150.

Well then. Lets begin to work in which I must to.

Google alternatives to .mac

Since I wrote this past entry, I was trying to get the most from all what my iMac and Google can give users. Since then, I found two useful things I wanted to share.

One of them is the Spanning Sync app, that allow users to sync iCal calendars with Google calendars (one account). You can make changes in iCal and they will show in Google, and all the way round, too! I think this is one of the useful things someone without a Macbook can use. Just don't agree with the price ($25/year or one time payment of $65 - €17/year or one time payment €45). I guess the one time payment is a better option than a yearly payment. Anyway, it's a very nice useful app and you can try the demo for 15 days.

There's also gSync, having it's main difference to Spanning in being capable of managing multiple Google accounts. They have a commercial demo and the price is £10 ($20 - €13.50). It looks very nice and has also been Staff's Pick at the Apple Downloads site.

But if you still want something open-source, you can give a try to GCALDaemon. I gave it a try but it's just to difficult for me, because I'm not into terminal language. So if you are that kind of terminal Mac user, go on.

Another things I just found, Google Notebook. Now you can make notes in your online notebook and have access to them anywhere you are. It also has a Firefox and IE extension. You can even have bookmarks as notes. And best of all, it's free.